Key of the Twilight
by Vixen Rouge
Summary: JENOVA Project, or the way to group insanity and despair You all know this. However I propose you a vision a little different from the usual. A MUST for anyone claiming to be a fan. Completed fic posted chapter after chapter, just R&R!
1. Shoot Me I'm a Fool

NB: Special characters have been alienated to fit the website, a complete version of this fanfic with proper characters, fonts and layout is available at Vixen-sama (dot) deviantART (dot) com /art/FF7-Key-of-the-Twilight-full-164831098

* * *

**Shoot me I'm a Fool**

[**Mu** ]-_Era_** 1973 – **May,17

"Pale blue with little white clouds if it's a boy and pale pink with little yellow suns if it's a girl, what do you think about this?"

"I don't want any child, Lucia"

She sighed. "Anyway we'll have to buy a house, your flat is so small we hardly can stand inside together, and there is no room for the baby…"

"I said I don't want any child" Hideaki growled. "And I feel very good in my flat, no way I'd move anywhere else!"

The woman frowned a bit. "Don't be upset, darling… You just need some time to get used to the fact you're not alone anymore…"

Hideaki mused everything was easier before Lucrecia burst in his life.

"Lu" he said, cutting her off in her blather. "Why are we here?"

"To work…?" she answered with a bit of hesitation.

"Yes. To work. Not to speak of random matters of life and hypothetic children's bedroom. So now, stop talking unless you have to tell me something really interesting and related to our current work, understood?"

As Lucrecia nodded the door of the lab opened wide with a "Hi, folks! I've got something for you!"

"Hello, Gast" Hideaki said without even minding looking at him.

"Good morning, prof!" Lucrecia said with a wide smile. "What's up?"

"Hideaki, catch a glimpse over this file" Gast passed by the woman as if she even didn't exist to hand the papers to the Wutain. "I hope you're pleased, it's a real honor to get such an order…"

The paper was about one of Gast's specimens by the name of JENOVA. It was an Ancient, or 'Cetra', and the goal of the scientists was to study it and establish an experimental protocol to clone it into recreating the race of the Ancients. The whole thing was going to take place in Nibelheim and Hideaki and Lucrecia had been chosen to work over there on the project. Their security would be ensured by the Turk Vincent Valentine.

Hideaki chuckled. "How wonderful! Nibelheim! You're such a nice guy, Faramis!"

Gast cleared his throat. "What's wrong? You should be happy…"

"I'm not stupid, you're sending me and Lucia to the other end of the world, with that poor trash of a Turk of Vincent… you just want to get rid of us for a good while… and I should be happy…?"

"Hideaki… it's a great experiment here…" Lucrecia began, "it'll be really interesting, perhaps the greatest project we'll ever have to work on, recreating a race…!"

"How pretty, indeed."

"And Nibelheim is a very lovely place…" she tried again.

"Yeah, peasants are just so charming creatures…"

"Oh, for Shiva's sake! Can't you just try to look on the bright side of life!"

Hideaki closed his mind to Lucrecia and Gast's "you should be happy, it's not everyday you get the chance to do such experiments", "no one is trying to get rid of you, you're a brilliant scientist" and other "it'll be like vacations but with great scientific experiments that will change the world's history for sure!"

All the 'brilliant scientist' had in mind at this moment were pictures of Gast and Lucrecia meeting death in the most horrible ways he could imagine.

"Oh, crap! keep on being all grumpy as you wish, I don't care!" Gast finally shouted. "You're leaving within one week anyway!"

And he left, mumbling with anger something like "such a stubborn fool!"

Hideaki smirked as he noticed he had been retrograded from 'brilliant scientist' to 'stubborn fool'.

"You're happy! You made him mad!" Lucrecia fumed once Gast had closed the door. "Can't you think a second about all the opportunities you may be missing that way?"

"Just repeat once what you said?"

The woman blinked. "…Can't you think a second about all the opportunities you may be missing that way?"

Hideaki was looking right in her eyes. "You understand?"

Lucrecia let out a long sigh. "You yet wasted all the opportunities you could have and you think that's why we're going to Nibelheim, right?"

Hideaki was still pissed and wanted to applause her with huge sarcasm to congratulate her for finally understanding the situation, almost on her own, but he thought Lucrecia would not appreciate and it would be even worse if she went hysterical. So he just nodded.

"Even if you were right, darling, can't you try to see this as a chance to show Gast and the world all you're worth?"

"Hmm, maybe" he answered to quickly end the discussion. He didn't want to tell her Gast was a cheater anyway and would get all the honors for doing nothing if the things went all right but would let them all the responsibilities if troubles occurred.

Lucrecia considered her husband's final answer as rather positive and started to muse about which clothes she would bring.


	2. Ain't no Mountain High Enough

NB: Special characters have been alienated to fit the website, a complete version of this fanfic with proper characters, fonts and layout is available at Vixen-sama (dot) deviantART (dot) com /art/FF7-Key-of-the-Twilight-full-164831098

* * *

**Ain't no Mountain High Enough**

[**Mu** ]-_Era_**1973 ****–**May,23

Nibelheim in summer was a rather pleasant place. Lucrecia found it charming. Hideaki thought it looked like the kind of quiet place where nothing ever happens. Vincent tried to see the small village as a new home sweet home since he knew he'd be there for some time. And Gast just led the way.

"This is the Shin-Ra Manor" he commented as the said manor appeared down the street. "The company built it just for you, it's a wonderful place."

Hideaki nodded with a "aha". Just for them? Rather in case it'd be needed for anything to be done in a forsaken place, no manor can be built within a week. And why a manor? Couldn't it have been more discreet? Oh, no, the Company had to show how rich and powerful it was even when it came to secret projects.

Yes, Gast's JENOVA Project was a top-secret experiment. Even if according to Hideaki, it looked like a big joke.

They visited the manor, chose their rooms and unpacked their luggage, which took half the day. After a nice lunch Gast briefed again his assistants about the goals of the experiment and told them they would see the specimen the following day.

"And to do so we'll have a nice trip through the mountains!" Gast announced.

"Oh great, the weather is perfect!" Lucrecia went on.

"…You don't look much enthusiastic, Hideaki … Forgot your sun lotion?"

"Yes I did, Professor Gast."

[**Mu** ]-_Era_**1973 ****–** May,24

The footpath reminded Hideaki of his childhood in Yakubayama though the mountains here were rockier than in the Wutain place where he used to live. But still, the ground was fertile and many bushes and flowers colored the landscape. The air was pure, the sky was blue, little birds could be heard singing here and there… it didn't look that bad. But Hideaki couldn't forget what they were heading to.

The place where Gast's specimen was kept was a brand new kind of reactor supposed to create electricity out of Makô energy. It was called 'Makô reactor' and this one was the very first one. A sort of real-life test, in fact, because the Company wasn't sure it would work until it had been tried out. Since this implied some risks, it also explained why it was built in such a recluse place. It wouldn't have been really good if that new kind of reactor had been built in the center of Midgar and could have blown up the city from a little technical problem.

"Ha, that's tiring, Professor… I pity the poor guys who had to come here to build that damn reactor!"

"Everything was brought by the air, Hideaki …"

"Hmm, as I thought so then… too bad we ain't that important to get a helicopter too…"

Lucrecia nudged her husband. "Darling, walking is healthy, and don't forget daylight is essential, you just can't keep on playing the geek locked up in a lab all the time!"

"And don't worry," Vincent added, "we'll almost be able to see the reactor, we'll arrive soon."

The Makô reactor was more than impressive, standing still and straight between the rocks, like a monument in honor of progress and technology fucking the nature. The interior was impressive as well, full of sophisticated devices and such. A gateway just up the Makô tank gave access to another room.

"Isn't it dangerous to be this close from Makô?" Lucrecia asked, a bit worried.

"Not the least, honey," Hideaki answered. "Do you really think Shin-Ra could create something potentially dangerous?"

"As long as you don't expose yourself to the Makô for years there's no risk, it was proven by our studies. And of course as long as you don't dive in it. There, I agree there would be a risk. You would just dissolve in it within a minute and that would be a really stupid death, but who's crazy enough to do that anyway?" Gast said.

"Well, there could be an accident…" Vincent began. "If someone accidentally pushed somebody else…"

"Oh, just mind what you do!" Gast snapped.

They entered in the following room to find an other kind of devices, those ones were designed for scientific experiments. Hideaki and Lucrecia were a bit surprised and amazed to discover such a gear.

"We thought the reactor could be a good place for some experiments with Makô and some devices requiring a huge amount of electricity…" the professor said mindlessly. "But here we go, up those stairs is my specimen!"

Everybody looked at the door up the stairs then at the notice proclaiming "J.E.N.O.V.A" just above. They thought that, at least, the content of the room was obvious.

Gast opened the door. The room was probably the strangest of the reactor, full of cables, wires and pipes of all kinds. In the middle of all that junk, was a glass tube filled with a glowing liquid. And in the tube was JENOVA.

Gast was satisfied with his assistants' expression of awe and amazement toward his specimen. It looked like an angel, a perfect humanoid body and incredible hair flowing all around, a wonderful face and such a serene expression… Hideaki was dumbstruck so Lucrecia spoke first.

"Is it a female?"

"It seems so from its physical appearance, the hips and face features are feminine and well, I assume you noticed the breasts, but since we don't know much about the Ancients maybe we still can have some surprises…" Gast snickered.

"I'm sure it's a woman," Lucrecia said. "Is she still alive?"

"Actually yes and it's a miracle I'm somewhat proud of… We found it in a sort of materia cocoon and first thought it was dead, but after further analysis I realized it was just like frozen in time. I decided to bet everything on putting it out of the cocoon and stimulating the body with electric impulsions to reactivate the vital functions. And it worked pretty well as you see."

"This is just so amazing, professor…"

"You're sweet, Lucia" Gast said. "Hey, Hideaki, you didn't say a word…"

As no reaction went he turned to the young man, calling him again.

"Hideaki? You heard me?"

"Yes, I heard, Faramis. I was just thinking about the procedure for the analysis. We'll probably need different sorts of samples…" Hojo answered with a grin and a ravenous glare.

Gast stared at him for some seconds with a puzzled expression. "Switch back to your normal cynical mood, Hideaki, you freak me out there, you look mad."

"…Hehehe… Excuse me. Maybe I'm a bit too fascinated. Once she catches your glare it's hard to look elsewhere…"

"Hahaha, don't fall in love, huh! You're yet married!" Gast joked. "Well, we're gonna take the needed samples and get back to the village, okay?"

"Yes, prof!"

"Err, may I help in any way?" Vincent asked.

"Yes," Hojo said. "Go outside and pick pretty flowers, that'll make Lucia happy."


	3. Come As You Are

NB: Special characters have been alienated to fit the website, a complete version of this fanfic with proper characters, fonts and layout is available at Vixen-sama (dot) deviantART (dot) com /art/FF7-Key-of-the-Twilight-full-164831098

* * *

**Come As You Are**

[**Mu** ]-_Era_**1973 ****–**June,28

Vincent put the coffeepot on the table and hurried to the toaster to quickly take the roasted slices of bread and spread butter on them – half burning his fingers during the operation; then put them on a lovely plate just between bottles of milk and orange juice and different pots of jam. As he was going to call the scientists for breakfast, Hideaki entered in the kitchen.

"You're just on time, Hideaki!" Vincent greeted him.

"Oh, really? What time is it?"

"Well, something like half past eight. Did you spend your night in the lab again?"

"Yes. I think I fell asleep at some moment. I just woke up and felt hungry."

The science man took a chair and glimpsed over the room. "Where's Lu?" he asked.

"She went for a walk I think… She said she would be back for breakfast."

"Good, good…"

"Some coffee?" Vincent proposed, ready to pour some in Hideaki's cup.

"Err, no, a mere bowl of milk will be fine, thank you, Vincent," Hideaki declined, recalling his lab rats preferred death to the horrible beverage Vincent dared to call coffee.

"…I improved you know…" Vincent said with a bit of hope.

Indeed. While Hideaki and Lucrecia had been hardworking in the lab, all Vincent had found to make himself useful was tidying up anything in the mansion and trying to improve his awful coffee. He also watched a lot of culinary TV programs and tried out many recipes he found in some books.

"Well then just a cup…" Hideaki accepted though a bit reluctantly.

They heard some yelps and a familiar voice laughing and giggling in the garden.

"Good boy, Loppy, good boy!"

Hideaki stood up and went to the window. "Hello, Lucia."

The woman startled as she heard him. "Oh, you surprised me, darling!"

"Sorry. So 'Loppy' is a dog…?" Hideaki said as he set his eyes on the young dog happily jumping around his wife's legs. A pretty bastard obviously.

"Isn't he cute? He's been following me whenever I went for a walk those days and we became good friends…" Lucrecia began.

"…Do what you want," Hideaki cut off. "Vincent prepared the breakfast, I think he'll be sad if you don't come and taste his coffee."

Lucrecia nodded and walked with Loppy to the main entrance some meters away. As he was looking at her and Loppy Hojo gulped a bit of coffee.

"Vincent…"

"Yes?"

"That coffee is gorgeous!"

[**Mu** ]-_Era_**1973 ****–**July,03

Hideaki smirked as he glanced at his fallen asleep wife on the sofa. He quickly dialed Gast's address on the Telex and typed the "WRU" code to be sure the connection was properly established. The answer went quickly and he set the paper tape on which was ciphered his latest report. The analysis of JENOVA's cells had shown a compatibility between Cetras and humans' genomes and Hideaki mused he would have to establish a cloning protocol quite soon.

As he was waiting for the 5 bits-coded message to be transmitted (at the amazing speed of 45,5 kilobits per second) Vincent entered the living room. Hideaki stood up and walked to him.

"Lu's been sleeping for two hours now, she'll be in a terrible mood if we awake her so don't speak loudly" he demanded in a low voice.

"I thought I should check if you were still working or sleeping. I brought some blankets…"

Hideaki wanted to laugh and tell him he was cute but just told him to put one on Lucrecia. He waited a bit again for his report to be fully transmitted and typed again the letters "WRU", got a positive answer and put an end to the connection.

Then he and Vincent exited the living room.

"You know you don't have to wait us to go to bed, Vincent… I don't think anybody's gonna try to kill us."

"I know, I know, but sometimes I find it hard to sleep so I try to make myself useful."

"Good boy…" Hideaki joked.

Vincent laughed but in a bitter tone. There was a moment of silence before he finally spoke, feeling Hideaki knew he wanted to say something and was waiting for it.

"…I envy you, Hideaki. I'm ashamed with that but I just can't deny it…"

"Go ahead…"

Vincent swallowed his saliva. "You've got things I'm just unable to get… You've got passions, ideals, ambitions and you give all you've got to fulfill them. I know some girls crushed on you or truly loved you, and some still do, and you're married with a wonderful woman as pretty and nice as intelligent… But me… I've no real passion except maybe guns because that's all I'm skilled with. I'm a total disaster with girls…"

Hideaki sighed. "Vincent. You're a really nice boy, plus you're handsome. Maybe you don't have much passions, and that explains you weren't able to find a way that really fits you and a job that would make you feel good and useful, maybe you're damn shy with girls and hardly able to manage your stress when trying to seduce one… but don't loose your hopes."

"That's easy to say…" Vincent began.

Hideaki felt he was going to complain for a good while and didn't wish to hear that. "Okay, let's make it quick and tell you what I know. About the girls, don't try to seduce them and such, they'll feel you're bad at ease because you're single and not just wishing random sex, so try to relax, be cool and try to make friends at first, I was told this by a female friend so it must be true. If you do that I'm sure some girls will then see the kind man you are and fall in love with you. About the passions, take the opportunity you've got here to have so much time left for you to try different things to spend your time. Maybe you'll find a hobby and maybe you'll think about another job that would be better for you…"

Hideaki startled as Vincent hugged him, starting to shiver at the contact.

"Thanks."

"No problem…"

"No, really. Thank you, Hideaki. You're really a friend."

[**Mu** ]-_Era_**1973 ****–** July,04

"I think the standard cloning protocol should work perfectly but I also think we need further analysis to be sure we're not gonna make some disastrous mistakes. JENOVA's blood is a bit special, it's a little different from human blood and this point is enough to put doubts on the success of a cloning try."

"Maybe we should try to see what happens if we melt her blood with the different groups of human blood?"

"Right… but then we've got to ask for samples, it'll take some days before we can get them I assume…"

Vincent mindlessly listened to the discussion as he was reading a book about piano. There was a piano in the manor so he thought maybe he could try learning to play. Plus he heard there was a piano teacher down town…

"Vincent?"

"Uh? What?" the Turk got out of his musing.

"I was asking you if you would prepare something for lunch or if I should do it," Lucrecia repeated.

"Oh, sorry, I had my head in the clouds, didn't hear. Sure I'll do it."

Vincent thought the time had run fast while he was reading. In someway it meant he didn't have the time to get bored and this made him smile. Hideaki was right, he needed some leisure and hobbies, no more.


End file.
